Our Publications

Selected Publications

McAuliffe, K., Bangayan, S., Callaghan, T., Corbit, J., Dixson, H. G. W., Dunham, Y., Finkel, A., Otali, E., Riddick, S., Tusiime, P., & Warneken, F. (2025). Across six societies children engage in costly third-party punishment of unfair sharing. Communications Psychology, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-025-00220-x

McAuliffe, K (in press). Children across societies punish unfairness. Springer Nature. https://communities.springernature.com/posts/children-across-societies-punish-unfairness

Probst, S., & Warneken, F. (2025). Children’s socio-moral reasoning about vaccine-like behaviorsJournal of Health Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1177/13591053251314684

Warneken, F., & McAuliffe, K. (2025). Lessons for the next pandemic: What children taught us about navigating new social norms during COVID-19. Current Directions in Psychological Sciencehttps://doi.org/10.1177/09637214241306057

Myslinska-Szarek, K., & Warneken, F. (2024). What do children value more in a collaborator—Problem-solving capacity or fair sharing? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 249, 106070. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2024.106070

Marshall, J., Lee, Y. E., Deutchman, P., Wang, Z., Horsey, C. D., Warneken, F., & McAuliffe, K. (2023). When not helping is nice: Children’s changing evaluations of helping during COVID-19. Developmental Psychology59(5), 953

Gollwitzer, A., Marshall, J., Lee, Y., Deutchman, P., Warneken, F., & McAuliffe, K. (2024). Parent and community political orientation predicts children’s health behaviors. European Journal of Social Psychology.

Corbit, J., McAuliffe, K., Blake, P. R., & Warneken, F. (2023). The influence of friendship on children’s fairness concerns in three societiesEvolution and Human Behavior.

Amir, D., Melnikoff, D., Warneken, F., Blake, P. R., Corbit, J., Callaghan, T. C., Barry, O., Bowie, A., Kleutsch, L., Kramer, K. L., Ross, E., Vongsachang, H., Wrangham, R., & McAuliffe, K. (2023). Computational Signatures of Inequity Aversion in Children Across Seven SocietiesJournal of Experimental Psychology: General.

Probst, S., Nowak, A., & Warneken, F. (2023). Children’s moral reasoning about self- versus other-benefiting public health measuresJournal of Experimental Child Psychology.

Grueneisen, S., Leimgruber, K. L., Vogt, R. L., & Warneken, F. (2023). Prospection and delay of gratification support the development of calculated reciprocityCognition.

Umscheid, V.A., Smith, C. E., Warneken, F., Gelman, S. A., & Wellman, H.M. (2023). What makes Voldemort tick? Children’s and adults’ reasoning about the nature of villainsCognition.

Lee, Y., Marshall, J., Deutchman, P., McAuliffe, K. & Warneken, F. (2022). Children’s judgments of interventions against norm violations: COVID-19 as a naturalistic study. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.

Lee, Y., & Warneken, F. (2022). Does third-party punishment in children aim at equalityDevelopmental Psychology.

Grueneisen, S. & Warneken, F. (2022). The development of prosocial behavior – from sympathy to strategyCurrent Opinion in Psychology.

Lee, Y., & Warneken, F. (2020). Children’s evaluations of third-party responses to unfairness: Children prefer helping over punishment. Cognition.

McAuliffe, K., Blake, P. R., & Warneken, F. (2020). Costly fairness in children is influenced by who is watching. Developmental Psychology. 

Warneken, F. (2018). How children solve the two challenges of cooperationAnnual Review of Psychology.

McAuliffe, K., Blake, P. R., Steinbeis, N., & Warneken, F. (2017). The developmental foundations of human fairness. Nature Human Behaviour.

Warneken, F. (2016). Insights into the biological foundation of human altruistic sentimentsCurrent Opinion in Psychology.

Blake, P. R., McAuliffe, K., Callaghan, T., Corbit, J., Barry, O., Bowie, A., Greaves, R., Kleutsch, L., Kramer, K., Ross, E., Vongsachang, H., Wrangham, R., & Warneken, F. (2015). The ontogeny of fairness in seven societiesNature.

McAuliffe, K., Jordan, J., & Warneken, F. (2015). Costly third-party punishment in young children. Cognition.

Warneken, F. (2015). Precocious prosociality – why do young children help? Child Development Perspectives.

Jordan, J., McAuliffe, K., & Warneken, F. (2014). Development of in-group favoritism in children’s third-party punishment of selfishnessProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Warneken, F. & Tomasello, M. (2006). Altruistic helping in human infants and young chimpanzeesScience